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Steven Tyler, the Savior of 'American Idol'

With his enthusiasm, bizarre non sequiturs and rock-star insanity, Tyler has revived the nation's favorite show

Oh, Steven Tyler, how could we all have doubted you? As soon as the news broke that the notoriously motormouthed Aerosmith stud was taking over the judges' panel on American Idol, everyone smelled a disaster. His loose-cannon lips and zigzag brain on live TV? Unthinkable. Nobody had ever seen Tyler sit down before, much less try to concentrate on the same thing for three hours. He seemed destined to go down faster than he did the night he fell offstage in the middle of "Love in an Elevator." Add Jennifer Lopez to the mix, years past her heyday, and Idol looked like a flop-sweat storm cloud ready to rain failure down upon us all.